‘Frozen’ Portraits Of Earth’s Northernmost Settlement

‘Frozen’ Portraits Of Earth’s Northernmost Settlement

‘Frozen’ Portraits Of Earth’s Northernmost Settlement

These ‘frozen’ portraits of Earth’s northernmost settlement reveal how life is like when temperatures drop way below zero degrees for several consecutive months. It’s not your typical walk in the park, but people who live here manage to make it work.

Maria Sahai is a Russian photographer who decided to take a tour of the Arctic’s most remote settlements. It was her childhood dream to watch the Northern Lights, and what better way to do that than by going to the world’s northernmost settlement?

In 2013, Maria Sahai, together with her husband, moved to Longyearbyen, a small mining town located 800 miles from the North Pole, on Spitsbergen Island, in Norway. The entire island is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean which makes the place even more fascinating.

‘Frozen’ Portraits Of Earth’s Northernmost Settlement

“Having lived in the Arctic for a while, my mother loved telling stories about how people could not go to work because of huge snowstorms, and how sleeping was hard and thick blankets had to be used to block the brightness of the Northern Lights!,” says Maria Sahai. “Those stories made me forever curious about the world.”

“For as long as I can remember, I dreamt of discovering as many of the less explored places on the planet as possible, and to share those experiences with others. Eventually, I turned to photography as a means to record my own travels and to share my discoveries with family, friends, and everyone.”